ADAC GT Masters – Another German GT podium for Pepper

South Africa’s Bentley Boy Jordan Pepper continued his recent top German ADAC GT Masters form with another Junior class podium before a brilliant charge through the field to end up 11th in the second race of Nurburgring’s fifth championship round on Sunday.

Pepper, who qualified the big yellow Deutsche Post Bentley Continental GT3 fifth for the first heat before he and German teammate Daniel Abt drove the car to fourth overall, was delighted with the second Junior Class podium that success brought with it on the trot, following a second overall in Austria two weeks prior.

“I am beyond happy about today,” the driver from Edenvale, Johannesburg who lives in Germany through the race season admitted. “We lost a bit of track time on Friday, so fifth in qualifying in a car that is not all that well suited to certain aspects of the Nurburgring is a huge result for us. “This circuit has very little grip and that caused us to struggle to put the traction down.

“And fourth in the race with a Junior Podium on Saturday? “I’ll take that – especially against the Porsches, which really were quick on the day. “The car felt great in the race and I”m happy about that,” Jordan admitted. “On Sunday morning however, I honestly do not know what went wrong. “The whole grid was mixed up, which is really weird because all the other cars that were in the front on Saturday were also struggling on Sunday morning.”

Jordan however took the car over form teammate Abt, who had qualified it in 8th, in 21st position at mid-distance and by the time the pitstops had panned out, he was up to 15th overall in Sunday’s second race. Pepper then charged hard to put the yellow Bentley into 11th by the time the chequered flag flew, albeit a little frustrated not to haul another significant points score.

“Overall I’d say the weekend was good for me,” Jordan concluded. “The second race could have been better, but now we go to Zandvoort even more motivated in two weeks time.” The Dutch round is the penultimate in the 2016 ADAC GT Masters championship, with Jordan sitting 8th in the Junior title race in spite of a difficult first half of the season, although a podium finish is certainly not out of his reach in that class.